Mon 15 Aug….Time to resume my blog after a 2 month break in England. Had a fantastic time seeing family and friends and the weather was great. Hot, hot, hot….hotter than Mombasa !!!
Having stressed unnecessary because I couldn’t check in to Ethiopian online, everything went smoothly at Heathrow. So, I arrived into Mombasa bang on time and got through immigration very quickly. I even questioned whether I should fill in a locator form , and the officer just let me through. The other tourists were busy completing their forms. I spent over 3 hours at the airport lending my phone to Nasor ( we sat next to each other on the flight) to enable him to make calls to friends to try to sort out his visa issue. Luckily I still had credit on my safaricom sim. Unfortunately he couldn’t resolve his problem and he was denied entry. The immigration officer threatened to arrest me if I didn’t take my phone back and leave and allow Nasor to be detained. I waited outside he never reappeared and was sent back to England. Just went to show how things can go horribly wrong.
Took a taxi all the way to Beachroad as it was election day for the new President and very few matatus were running. My fellow taxi passenger said he’d contribute 200bob to the 1,500 fare, but he pretended to send it and never did.
I had paid my 1,800 room charge from the airport, fortunately there was a sufficient balance in my mpesa account. Got to my room, settled in , and as it was already around 6p.m. I went next door to Sanana for a couple of beers. Some interesting conversations around the bar on the subject of the election result. Incl the guy who said there ought to be a Rwanda style genocide in Kenya to start democracy afresh and do away with tribal politics…!! He apologised later for his extreme views. Had lots of food on the plane so I didn’t eat any dinner.
Tues 16th. Put a walk to Nyali shopping centre to the test. Not as bad as I thought, 45 mins all the way there, but compared to 15 mins from Bustani , and that’s why Bustani is much better placed. Looking forward to staying there in mid September. Went to the bank, off licence, supermarket, and had a nice coffee. A visit to Rubis bar was squeezed in before buying vegetables in the local shops. Stopped off at Maasai beach briefly then walked all the way back to Beachroad. Had a couple of beers at Sanana then cooked sausages, spaghetti and veg in my apartment.
Wed 17th. Walked straight down Beachroad…to the beach…unsurprisingly!! Decided to walk all the way along the beach and get to the shopping centre, a ten minute walk from the beach. But along the way I sat/lay on the beach and after a while was approached by 2 army personnel carrying rules. Apparently I was too close to a military installation and I was told politely to move on. Just pleased they didn’t arrest me.
I passed Maasai beach bar, relaxed a bit on that stretch of beach and walked over to the shopping centre and Rubis. On the way back I bought a packet of crisps which had increased in price by 50% due to the rising price of cooking oil. This time I caught a matatu back to Beachroad…only 30bob. A quick visit to the bar before cooking the remaining sausages and vegetables.
I set the alarm 06:00 so I could catch an early matatu into the city to get the vehicle to Taveta. I think by 08:00 ish I was on my way. The second time staying at the Beachroad apartment was much better as I now know my way around.